"I am proud of our small, independent company and our proprietary wellness formulas," stated Scott Fraser, president and CEO Empowered Products. "We are an active example of a consumer products company [who has been able] to successfully grow beyond its initial niche market into the mainstream consumer retail space."

The personal lubricants are now available through more than 11,000 retail doors across major food, drug and mass outlets, the company noted.

Convenient care clinics, NPs and PAs take center stage at RCEC 2013

The importance of convenient care clinics within the U.S. healthcare system, along with the nurse practitioners and physician assistants who work in them, rang loud and clear at the sixth annual Retail Clinician Education Congress held in May.

The three-day educational and networking forum, which is accredited for both nurse practitioners and physician assistants, was held May 14 to 16 at the Planet Hollywood Resort in Las Vegas. The Drug Store News Group, in conjunction with the Convenient Care Association and Partners in Healthcare Education, hosted the conference.

In addition to a track accredited for nurse practitioners and physician assistants, RCEC 2013 once again held the Executive and Health Systems Leadership Colloquium, a special executive track for management, upper management and C-level executives of retail clinic operators, as well as companies and organizations interested in entering the retail clinic industry.

New wrinkles in this year’s RCEC included a poster session program, which not only represented an important opportunity for healthcare providers to share research, programs and results with their peers, but it also increased the number of CE credits that clinicians could earn at RCEC. Attendees mingled with the authors to learn more about their poster presentations during the Meet the Author events. The posters covered such topics as weight management and infectious diseases.

Marking its third year on the program, the CEO/Leadership Panel discussion offered attendees a first hand update from top clinic executives on critical healthcare changes, challenges and opportunities. A transcript of the CEO/Leadership Panel will be published in the next issue of DSNCollaborative Care.

TRENDING STORIES

Catamaran signs 10-year PBM outsourcing deal with Cigna

BLOOMFIELD, Conn. — Catamaran will provide pharmacy benefit management services to Cigna Corp. for 10 years under a new deal between the PBM and the health insurer.

The two companies said they would partner on sourcing, fulfillment and clinical services to drive better cost and clinical outcomes for patients and employers. Cigna will lead formulary management, clinical and product development and sales and marketing while managing day-to-day customer- and client-facing functions, providing clinical services to more than 8 million customers and integration of medical care and disability management with clinical and pharmacy programs. Cigna also will continue to be the brand for pharmacy-related customer interactions, and all home-delivery prescription drugs and refills will be dispensed and distributed under its name and label.

"Our integrated pharmacy benefit management business has delivered exceptional results for our customers and clients and continues to be an essential part of our strategy," Cigna president and CEO David Cordani said. "This strategic PBM partnering agreement will complement Cigna’s strengths of partnering with physicians to engage customers in their overall health and wellness."

Cigna said the deal would add about 50 cents to its share price in 2015 and expected costs related to the deal after taxes to reach about $25 million in second quarter 2013. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Industry analyst Adam Fein, writing in his Drug Channels blog, wrote that Cigna was "showing confidence in the independent PBM model" by entering an outsourcing deal with Catamaran. Of the three models it could have chosen — insourcing, full outsourcing and selective outsourcing — it chose the selective outsourcing model, which Fein compared with the 12-year contract that Aetna signed with CVS Caremark in 2010.

This, Fein wrote, was because of terms of the deal that included Cigna’s retaining formulary management, clinical and product development and other services and leading the integration activities of medical and pharmacy benefit; and Catamaran’s provision of prescription-drug procurement and inventory management, order fulfillment, retail-network management and claims processing while maintaining a mostly behind-the-scenes role.

Pulitzer Prize-winner Peggy Noonan, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and singer Diana Ross now feature on the schedule for the National Association of Chain Drug Stores Annual Meeting, slated for April 21-24 in Palm Beach, Fla.

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